UN climate change panel based claims on student dissertation and magazine article  —  The United Nations' expert panel on climate change based claims about ice disappearing from the world's mountain tops on a student's dissertation and an article in a mountaineering magazine.

Brown: SNL Sketch ‘Pretty Funny’ — By: Robert Costa  —  The GOP isn't the only flagging franchise that Senator-elect Scott Brown (R., Mass.) is helping to revive.  Tonight on NBC's Saturday Night Live, host Jon Hamm, best known as the dashing Don Draper of AMC's Mad Men, portrayed Brown in a sketch …

Senator suggests Holder step down  —  A top-ranking Senate Republican suggested that Attorney General Eric Holder should “step down” one year into the job.  —  GOP Conference Chairman Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) said on “Fox News Sunday” that the embattled Holder likely made the decision …

ATLAS EXCLUSIVE: Obama Organizing in High School  —  An Atlas reader, Chuck, has a student in the eleventh grade in an Ohio High School.  Her government class passed out this propaganda recruiting paper so students could sign up as interns for Obama's Organizing for America (OFA is the former mybarackobama.com site.)

The State of the Union Is Comatose  —  HANDS down, the State of the Union's big moment was Barack Obama's direct hit on the delicate sensibilities of the Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.  The president was right to blast the 5-to-4 decision giving corporate interests an even greater stranglehold …

More impact is what's next for the Tea Party movement  —  A year ago, the Tea Party movement didn't exist.  Today, it is arguably the most popular political entity in America.  The movement is already more popular than the Republican or Democratic parties, according to a recent NBC / WSJ poll .

Gibbs: Accused 9/11 plotter likely to be executed  —  Still no decision on where Mohammed will be tried  —  WASHINGTON - Accused Sept. 11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is likely to be executed after being tried and convicted, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Sunday.

Pakistan Taliban Chief Reportedly Killed in U.S. Drone Strike  —  The head of the Taliban in Pakistan, Hakimullah Mehsud, was killed in a U.S. drone attack, Pakistan state television reported Sunday.  —  The report stated Mehsud had been injured in a drone attack in the Shaktoi area January 14 and died three days later.

Terrorists ‘plan attack on Britain with bombs INSIDE their bodies’ to foil new airport scanners  —  Britain is facing a new Al Qaeda terror threat from suicide ‘body bombers’ with explosives surgically inserted inside them.  —  Until now, terrorists have attacked airlines …

How to Reform Our Financial System  —  PRESIDENT OBAMA 10 days ago set out one important element in the needed structural reform of the financial system.  No one can reasonably contest the need for such reform, in the United States and in other countries as well.

Latest Round-Up of Obama Poll Ratings by State  —  The latest round-up of President Obama's job approval or favorability ratings by state updates or adds Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

The Secessionist Campaign for the Republic of Vermont  —  The President on Wednesday may have reassured Americans that the state of the Union is “strong,” but, just the week before, a group of Vermont secessionists declared their intention to seek political power in a quest to get their state to quit the Union altogether.

Chicago cools to Barack Obama, its hometown boy  —  “WE'RE what you might call an opinion-based barbershop,” proclaims Clemon Clay, the owner of Gordy's barbers on the South Side of Chicago.  “Equal parts politics and haircutting.”  —  With its chess set, slot machine …